Koshari

I first tried this dish at the university dining commons and loved it. It is the national dish of Egypt. It basically consists of lentils, rice and orzo with a spicy tomato sauce. It is very easy to make and cheap. The recipe says it serves 6 people but I’d say it serves 6 VERY hungry people. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 cup brown lentils

1 cup basmati rice

1 cup uncooked orzo

2 large onions, diced

2 tablespoons oil

1 (400 g) can chopped tomatoes

¼ teaspoon crushed red chili pepper flakes

Salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Cook the lentils in just over a liter of salted water.

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15-30 minutes, depending on the type of lentils you are using.

When the lentils are tender, add the rice to the lentils and continue to simmer until the rice is cooked. Add water if necessary.

In a separate pot, cook the orzo.

Rinse and strain when done.

Meanwhile, sauté the inions in the oil until golden.

Add the tomatoes, chili flakes, salt and pepper and let it bubble for 10-20 minutes or until thickened.

Mix the lentils, rice and orzo together in one pot.

Place some of the lentil mixture on each plate and top with the tomato sauce.

The Spicy Tomato Sauce

Comments:

The original recipe calls for basmati rice but I used RiceSelect’s Royal Blend that includes white, brown, red and wild rice to include some whole grains. I also used whole grain orzo. The original recipe on food.com actually says to use elbow macaroni or small shells; I chose orzo because the one I had at the university was made with orzo and other recipes I looked at also used orzo. The original recipe also says to sauté the onions with 4 cloves of garlic, which I omitted because of my mom. When I made this dish, I restricted myself with the amount of chili pepper I added because my mom is not very tolerant of spicy foods; however, I recommend adding a lot of it to give the dish a good boost of flavor. (My mom agreed.)